The Reader
SynopsisPlot
When he falls ill on his way home from school, fifteen-year-old Michael Berg is rescued by Hanna, a woman twice his age. In time she becomes his lover—then she inexplicably disappears. When Michael next sees her, he is a young law student, and she is on trial for a hideous crime. As he watches her refuse to defend her innocence, Michael gradually realizes that Hanna may be guarding a secret she considers more shameful than murder.
Story
About this book
In postwar Germany, fifteen-year-old Michael Berg falls ill on his way home from school and is helped by Hanna Schmitz, a woman in her mid-thirties. He returns to thank her, and what begins as gratitude develops into a secretive affair. Hanna is volatile and guarded, refusing to answer questions about her past. She vanishes from Michael's life without explanation, leaving him with memories he cannot resolve.
Years later, Michael is a law student observing courtroom proceedings when he sees Hanna again. She stands accused of a serious crime committed during the war. As the trial unfolds, her behavior puzzles him and others in the courtroom: she appears unwilling to mount a proper defense. Michael begins to suspect that Hanna is protecting a personal secret she finds even more unbearable than the charges against her. This realization stays with him for years afterward.
Bernhard Schlink, a German law professor and judge, published The Reader in 1995. Michael narrates as an adult, looking back across both periods of his life. The story examines how personal entanglement with someone from the war generation forces questions about guilt, shame, and the limits of understanding onto those born after the conflict ended.
